Many consumable materials and articles are provided to consumers in containers which are used to store and dispense the materials and articles until depletion. Some types of materials and articles must be carefully protected from contamination or spoilage in order to obtain the maximum utility.
In one example, personal sanitary articles such as facial tissues are typically stored in and dispensed from inexpensive paperboard boxes. The paperboard box typically has a frangible closure which once removed exposes the top facial tissue of a stack of facial tissues. The user tears open the closure and grasps and removes the first or top tissue.
This type of container is typically used to dispense sanitary articles. A person needing a sanitary article may likely have hands contaminated by germs, objectionable substances, and the like. Therefore, when reaching into the container, the germs or objectionable substances may become transferred to the remaining tissues which themselves will obviously become contaminated.
Usually, this is not a problem when the first several tissues are removed. However, as the supply of tissues is progressively depleted, the user must reach farther and farther into the container to reach the next available tissue. As his or her hand must extend farther and farther into the container, the likelihood of contamination of the box and the remaining supply of tissues increases.
One solution to this problem would be to provide tissues in shallow containers. However, this obliges the consumer to purchase smaller boxes of product, with attendant increased costs in packaging for the number of tissues or other product purchased.
In a second example, consumable products such as food products may be subject to spoilage if exposed to nothing more than ambient air. Such food products, including coffee, pet foods, and many others, may be packaged in large containers which require a while to be fully consumed. After an initial portion is consumed, the remainder may start to spoil or merely to lose freshness if left in the can or other package until it is consumed.
Alternatively, single portions may be individually packaged. This overcomes the issue of spoilage and loss of freshness, but requires one entire container which is discarded after only one portion is consumed.
There exists a need for a container of tissues to both protect against contamination when reaching for the next tissue, while still enabling consumers to have commercially available relatively great supplies of tissues.
There also exists a need in the field of products of limited life once the container is opened, wherein the container accommodates small portions, yet minimizes costs of such accommodation.